Part 15 (2/2)
Captain-- ”
1st Lieut.-- ”
2d Lieut.-- ”
and the recommendations for appointment made according to the applicant's merits.
'We have endeavored, to the best of our ability, to make this recommendation without partiality, favor or affection.
We consider alone, in making our awards, the ability of the person to serve his country in the duties appertaining to the office. If, in the opinion of the Board, the person is not possessed of sufficient knowledge or capacity to fill either of the above named to the advantage of his country, he is rejected, notwithstanding any influence he may be able to bring to bear in the case. Let it be remembered that zeal alone is not sufficient; but what we require for a good officer is zeal combined with knowledge. No ordinary man can properly fill the office of colonel of a regiment. To acquire that knowledge of tactics as would fit him to command his regiment, as it ought to be in all situations, requires much study and practice, and is by no means easy.
He should, besides, possess good administrative qualities, in order that affairs should run smoothly in his command, and the officers and privates be as contented and happy as circ.u.mstances admit. Nor can too much trouble be taken properly to prepare persons to fill the responsible position of officers. Each State should have its military academy. In the meantime much good can be done by inst.i.tuting a school for the instruction of persons (especially those who have had some experience in the service) who may have the requisite capacity and zeal to serve their country with advantage. Eschew all humb.u.g.g.e.ry and mere pretension, and let merit be the test of advancement.
'Let it be impressed deeply on the conscience of every man of influence and authority that when he places in command an incompetent officer he is guilty of manslaughter. The country has lost millions of treasure and thousands of lives by the incompetency of officers. We have many enemies on earth besides the Southern rebels. The fate of free inst.i.tutions, not only in our own country, but in other lands, the destiny of millions unborn, depend upon our ability to maintain this contest to a successful issue against all our enemies, both foreign and domestic.
'The system of examination inst.i.tuted by this Board, in my opinion, should be extended to the white as well as colored troops.
'Many of those who have been unsuccessful in the examination before the Board have, no doubt, in some cases, felt aggrieved, as also their friends.
'We have established a system of examination for officers, the good effects of which are already apparent in the colored organizations in the field. In the performance of this responsible, and not always agreeable duty, of presiding over this Board, I have always endeavored to be guided by conscientious regard for the good of the country, and I have every confidence that a just and intelligent people will award their approbation.
SILAS CASEY, _Bvt. Major-General U.S. Army._'”
Of course this did not apply to regiments raised at the North, generally. They were officered by the _elite_, such as Col. R. G. Shaw, of the 54th Ma.s.sachusetts, a former member of the 7th New York Regiment, and upon whose battle monument his name is carved. Cols. James C.
Beecher, Wm. Birney and a host of others, whose names can now be found on the army rolls, with the prefix General, commanded these regiments.
Of those who commanded Southern regiments this is equally true, especially of those who served in the 9th, 10th, 18th and 19th Corps.
Col. G.o.dfred Weitzel, who in March, 1865, had been promoted to Major General of Volunteers, commanded the 25th Corps of 30,000 negro soldiers. The select corps of officers intended to officer Gen. Ullman's brigade of four regiments to be raised at New Orleans by order of the War Department, dated January 1863, as well as the battalion, which he was also ordered to raise for scouting purposes, the following March, included many men of rank. To command a negro regiment or company was at this date a coveted prize, for which men of wealth and education contended. The distinction which they were continually winning for their officers, frequently overcame the long-cherished prejudice of West Point, and the graduates of this caste inst.i.tution now vied for commissions in negro regiments, in which many of them served during the Rebellion and since.
[Ill.u.s.tration: CAPT. O. S. B. WALL, U. S. A.]
It was the idea of Gen. Banks when organizing the Corps d'Afrique to appoint even the non-commissioned officers from the ranks of white regiments, and he did so in several instances. His hostility to negro officers was the cause of his removing them from the regiments, which Major General Butler organized at New Orleans in 1862. In organizing the Corps d'Afrique, the order, No. 40, reads:
”The Commanding General desires to detail for temporary or permanent duty, the best officers of the army, for the organization, instruction, and discipline of this Corps.
With them he is confident that the Corps will render important service to the Government. It is not established upon any dogma of equality or other theory, but as a practical and sensible matter of business. The Government makes use of mules, horses, uneducated white men in the defence of its inst.i.tutions; why should not the negro contribute whatever is in his power, for the cause in which he is as deeply interested as other men? We may properly demand from him whatever service he can render.”
At first it was proposed to pay the officers of negro troops less than was paid the officers of white soldiers, but this plan was abandoned.
Toward the close of the war nearly all the chaplains appointed to negro regiments were negroes; non-commissioned officers were selected from the ranks, where they were found as well qualified as those taken from the ranks of white regiments. In the 10th and 18th Corps it was a common thing for the orderly sergeants to call their company's roll from memory, and the records of many companies and regiments are kept at the War Department in Was.h.i.+ngton, as mementoes of their efficiency.
Such were the men who commanded the Black Phalanx. The following are the names of the negro commissioned officers of the Butler Louisiana Regiments:
ROSTER OF NEGRO OFFICERS OF THE LOUISIANA NATIVE GUARD VOLUNTEER REGIMENTS.
FIRST REGIMENT.
Capts. Andrew Cailloux, Louis A. Snaer, John Depa.s.s, ” Henry L. Rey, Edward Carter, Joseph Follin, ” James Lewis, James H. Ingraham, Aleide Lewis.
Lieuts. Lewis Pet.i.t, Ernest Sougpre, J. G. Parker, ” J. E. Morre, Wm. Harding, John Hardman, ” F. Kimball, V. Lesner, J. D. Paddock, ” Louis D. Lucien.
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